The legal aspects of Human Cloning are quite simple and straight forward, and I will outline them for you in the nexzt few minutes and explain to you what they mean. It is quite evident though, that you will not be able to understand these laws if you don’t know what human cloning technically means! So let me begin by defining for you what our government defines as “human cloning”. Human cloning, or better termed as “Human Embryo Cloning” is defined as “… to replicate a human being”. In other words, a clone of someone is just a time – delayed identical twin of that person!
Now that we know what human cloning means, we can discuss the prohibition on federal funding for cloning for human beings. President Clinton first addressed this issue in December of 1994. He directed the National Institutes of Health not to fund the creation of human embryo’s for research purposes. Then, congress extended this prohibition in Fiscal year ’96 & Fiscal year ’97 appropriation bills (which are simply bills for funds set aside for a specfic purpose), barring the Dept of Health and Human Services from supporting certain human embryo research. The President then went on to address this issue for one last time on March 4th. 1997. After deciding that this law had too many loopholes, he laid down the law and issued a directive that banned the use of any federal funds for any cloning of human beings. He stated the reason for his prohibition in a press conference in the oval officeon March 4th. He believes that it is not just a matter of of scietific inquiry, rather that it is a matter of morality, as you will understand better as you listen to the other speakers in my group. He states “each human life is unique, born of a miracle that reaches beyond lab sciences.” He also states that “I believe we must respect this profound gift and respect its origin”.
